I hear Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey a lot, but I learned Righten Tighten, Leften Loosen. Tighty and loosey sound iffy to me, more like tightish than tight, or loosish than loose. And tighten and loosen are actual words too.
Did anyone else learn the more rational and sensible and correct phrase used by all the coolest kids like I did?
My grandfather didn’t free Europe from fascism in the 1940s to return to an America where we say Leften Loosen.
Where and when? I have never heard the latter.
Neither. According to my dad, it’s “Clock Lock.”
It can only be ‘lefty-loosey’
'Cause it’s fun to say.
Washington DC suburbs, early 1960s.
That’s when and where I learned “Righty tighty.”
Well, “righty tighty” sounds kinda like “tighty whities,” which gives your inner toddler an underwear joke to giggle at. On that basis alone, it should be the preferred choice.
Rock
Righty-tighty, like the good lord intended.
“Leften Loosen” sounds like a character in a Damon Runyan story.
More like Ring Lardner.
“Shut up,” Leften Loosen explained.
When I drop my tighty whities and twist my loosey goosey righty tighty it gets firmy wormy and I yell alrighty rooney!
I’ll let myself out now…okie dokie, artichokie?
See ya later, alligator. Scoobie doo wah.
Well, that explains it. Youse guys aren’t even part of the Yoonited States.
Mañana, iquana
Lefty Loosie sounds like the incident where Jedgar Hoover was investigating Lucille Ball for being a Communist.I didn’t hear Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosie until the 80s, on TV. Can’t believe thats the version that became popular. Tighten and loosen are actual words. ‘Loosie’ is defined as slang for a cigarette sold individually. Otherwise not a word at all.
I’ve never heard anything but righty tighty, lefty loosie.
And I think the point is that they’re not actual words. “Turn towards the right to tighten, towards the left to loosen” is an actual proper sentence – and both longer to say and less likely to be remembered. Putting it in slang with a form of the words not otherwise used actually makes it easier to remember.
ETA: And come to think of it, “leften” and “righten” aren’t words, either.
I’ve always thought of it as Lefty Lucy.
Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty. In that order.
Add me to the list of those who have never heard Righten Tighten, Leften Loosen before.